You like weird. You don’t care what other people think. You’re a fan of the French Revolution. All of these might be reasons to take a look at this 1987 Citroen CX 2500 Prestige. It’s featured on ebay with a set price a buck under twenty thousand, and it will be sold, apparently, by Friday mid-day. If this looks like an opportunity to you, find a path to Douglas, Georgia, with the cash in hand and drive it home. Or hire someone to do it. This is, after all, a limousine, as claimed by the “Prestige” long body model designation, and everyone knows that people who own limos don’t drive themselves.
“Never go unnoticed with this eye-catching beauty,” the ad says. Remember the Seinfeld episode where the friend’s baby was so F-ugly that all people could say was, “Yup, that’s a baby”? That’s what’s going on here. What’s the saying? Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone? Please find an angle where your synapses aren’t scrambling to shield you from the truth of what’s in front of you. Rear view? Ugly as the Pontiac Aztek. Side view? Door handles look a foot too low. Front view? OK, not so bad, though the headlights look like they belong on a larger model car. Not that this one isn’t big enough. The limo model here is ten inches longer than the standard body configuration.
Want a chuckle? Look at the seller’s ebay identity. “O’Malley Musical Instruments.” Maybe you can trade in the trumpet you played in high school for partial credit. Want more oddities? The spare tire is wedged into the engine compartment. Who thinks of this stuff? The seller does make a virtue of the “Stalk-free” design, where everything is reachable at one’s fingertips. Honestly, who cares?
And if you’re worried about four-decades-old French engineering, note that most everything works, but not the fuel gauge, and that “most wiring replaced” are words you probably don’t want to hear. The paint, in addition, is not fantastic. The interior? More odd-looking styling with the multi-tufted seat facings, and the base of the driver’s seat looks suspiciously well-worn for a car with 64,000 miles on the odometer. They say there’s a butt for every seat, but at this price, it’s going to be hard to find a match for what might once, a long time ago and far, far away, have been a dream car, for someone. Heck, where is that person when you need him? Francophiles, please convince the rest of Barn Finds Nation that there’s reason to invest in this car.
Gee Brian, why didn’t you just say you didn’t like the car and leave it at that?
This blog usually manages to find something nice to say about every car, even when it’s not warranted. But there’s a lot of hate on the internet, so some positivity is nice to see. Evidently a Citroen pi**ed in someone’s Wheaties, though 🤷
I spent several weeks driving a CX2500 circa 1988. The company that lent it to me had visions of selling them in the States.
As the owner of a DS-21, I found the CX interesting, but it lacked the strangeness of the DS. Yes, it had many of the same oleopneumatic elements of my car — steering and braking assists, suspension — but these seemed to have been adjusted somewhat for a more normal, non-French-car feel. It had a normal manual transmission too, not the hydraulically assisted semi-automatic.
I thought they might have a chance of selling some, as it was stylish, nicely built with quality materials, and rode as smoothly as a Lincoln Town Car. The only real shortcoming I could find was, like the DS, it felt slightly undeepowered, but the company gave up not long after, even though Citroen added a turbocharged model not long thereafter.
Had I not driven the DS and and an SM, I would have thought it was terrific.
I met up with the owner of this one who was from Denmark.
He shipped it over & made a tour of the USA.
Compared to today’s SUVs this car is a thing of beauty.